# Your web developer has disappeared. What now? > Your developer has stopped answering, and you're not sure who controls your website. Here's how to work out what you own, get access back, and make sure it doesn't happen again. - Source: https://webdivine.agency/insights/web-developer-disappeared - Author: Fady Ilias, Director, Web Divine - Published: 2026-10-19 --- It usually starts small. A change request goes unanswered for a week. Then an email bounces, or a phone number rings out. Meanwhile something on the site needs fixing, and you realise you don't actually know who controls it. This happens to a lot of small businesses, and it's rarely anyone's grand plan. Freelancers change careers, small agencies close, people get sick. The good news is that in most cases you can get control back. Here's how to do it in order, without making things worse. ## First: don't panic, and don't touch anything yet Your website is probably still running. Hosting and domains renew on their own as long as someone's card is still being charged. The risk isn't that the site vanishes tomorrow. It's that something renews into the wrong hands, expires unnoticed, or breaks with nobody able to fix it. So start by finding out what you have, before you change any passwords or cancel anything. ## Step 1: Make a list of everything your website depends on Most websites rely on more pieces than people realise. Work through this list and note, for each one, whether you have the login: - **Domain name.** Where your web address is registered (for example, VentraIP, Crazy Domains or GoDaddy). - **DNS.** Where your domain's settings are managed. Often the same place as the domain, sometimes Cloudflare. - **Hosting.** The server your website actually runs on. - **Website admin.** The WordPress, Shopify or other login you use to edit the site. - **Email.** If your business email runs through the same domain, it depends on the DNS settings too. - **Google accounts.** Google Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager and your Google Business Profile. - **Licences.** Premium themes and plugins, often bought on the developer's account. - **Code.** For custom-built sites, where the code is stored (for example, a GitHub account). Whatever you already control, write it down and keep it somewhere safe. Whatever you don't, that's your to-do list. ## Step 2: Find out who holds your domain The domain is the most important item, because whoever controls it controls where your website and email point. Look your domain up on a WHOIS tool. For .au domains, auDA (the body that runs the .au domain space) has an official one. It shows the registrar (the company the domain is registered with) and, for .au names, who the registrant is. **If the registrant is your business**, you're in a good position. The transfer code needed to move the domain is sent to the registrant's contact email. If that email is one you control, you can request the code and move the domain to an account in your own name. If it's the developer's email, contact the registrar directly. They'll have a process for verifying that you're the registrant. **If the developer registered the domain in their own name**, it's harder. A change of registrant normally has to be started by the current registrant. Ask them in writing to transfer it to your business. If they won't, or can't be reached, auDA has a complaints process, and it's worth getting advice before you go down that path. ## Step 3: Get into your hosting Find out where the site is hosted. A DNS lookup on your domain usually shows the hosting provider, or your developer's old invoices may name it. - **If the hosting account is in your name**, contact the host, verify who you are, and reset the password. - **If it's in the developer's name**, the host generally can't hand it over to you. In that case, the priority is getting a full copy of your website. If you can still log in to WordPress, you can usually take a full backup yourself with a backup plugin, which gives you a copy to move to new hosting. If you can't get into anything at all, a developer can often rebuild from what's publicly visible, but that's the slow and expensive route. That's why the backup matters. ## Step 4: Secure your Google accounts These are easy to forget and painful to lose, because years of data live in them. - **Google Search Console.** Once you control your domain's DNS, you can verify yourself as an owner directly, without the developer. - **Google Business Profile.** If you can't access your listing, Google has a request-ownership process from the listing itself. - **Google Analytics.** Access can only be granted by an existing administrator. If the developer was the only admin, ask them to add you. If that's not possible, set up a new property so you at least start collecting data again. ## Step 5: Lock things down Once you have access: 1. **Change the passwords** on every account, and turn on two-factor authentication. 2. **Remove the developer's user accounts** from WordPress, hosting and Google, unless you're still working with them. 3. **Check renewal dates** for the domain and hosting, and put the renewals on your business card. 4. **Take a fresh backup** and store it somewhere other than the web server. 5. **Update the site.** If it hasn't been maintained for a while, plugins and themes may be well out of date. Update carefully, starting with a backup. ## Step 6: Make sure it can't happen again Whoever looks after your website next, these rules keep you in control: - **Every account is in your business's name**, with your email as the owner. Your developer gets their own login as a user. - **You pay for the domain and hosting directly**, or at least know where they are and when they renew. - **You keep a list of logins** in a password manager, shared with the people who need it. - **Backups are stored off the server.** - **Your agreement says you own the website** and its content once it's paid for. A good developer will be happy with all of this. If one isn't, that tells you something. ## When to call for help You can do most of this yourself with some patience. It's worth getting help when the site is broken and you can't get in, when the domain is in someone else's name, or when you've found access but don't know what you're looking at. Taking over websites someone else built is a large part of what our [website support](https://webdivine.agency/services/website-support) team does. We'll work out what you have, get the accounts into your name, back the site up and fix what's urgent. If your site runs on WordPress, see [WordPress support and maintenance](https://webdivine.agency/services/wordpress-support), and if it's a custom portal or app, see [web app support](https://webdivine.agency/services/web-app-support). Or [talk to us](https://webdivine.agency/lets-talk) and tell us what's happened. --- Web Divine is a web design and development studio in Melbourne, Australia. More articles: https://webdivine.agency/insights. Site index for AI assistants: https://webdivine.agency/llms.txt